The Clothes Horse

Alex Salinas
Sales and Business Marketing and Spanish Major
HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Spring 2018

I was shocked and super happy when I found out that my flat had a washing machine. I didn’t have to go to the laundromat anymore like I had to in Kalamazoo, such a blessing. No more late-night trips to the laundromat to wash my clothes because I had nothing to wear the next day. As happy as I was to find out I had a washing machine, which I had to share with 11 other people, there was no drying machine.

At first, I was confused and I had to ask my roommates how I was supposed to dry my clothes they looked at me with a grin and said clothes horse. Baffled I asked where I could find it and they said under my bed. I looked under my bed and I pulled out the strangest metal rack that I’ve ever seen. I had to ask my roommates how to assemble it and how it worked. I’ve never had to hang dry my clothes and I found out that most people in Europe don’t have a dryer for many reasons, mostly because its expensive.

Image: A Dutch Square.

Getting used to waiting 24 hours so my clothes dry was something I didn’t expected coming here. I did learn a few tricks to dry my clothes faster though, turning on the radiator sped up the process a by a few hours. I could also put clothes the radiator if I needed clothes in a pinch and they would be dried in a few hours. I have to plan out when I was going to do laundry throughout the week so I didn’t run out of clothes. Once I got a routine going it wasn’t that bad, but at first it was definitely an adjustment. Now I just have to figure out how to iron, but that’s a bridge I’ll cross when I get there.